Prairie Crab Apple Tree
The Prairie Crab Apple (Malus Ioensis, Britt.) is the species found from Wisconsin to Oklahoma. It has only recently been distinguished from M. coranaria, which its flowers closely resemble. Its leaves are shorter and oval in shape, with deep, irregular teeth, and linings of silky white down. The dull green apples are of good size, larger than the other native crabs, and are not at all flattened. It is the woolliness of all the young growth in summer that will chiefly distinguish this tree.
The double-flowered form of this crab apple, Mains Ioensis flore pleno, is one of the most beautiful of ornamental trees. Its flowers are not so numerous as to overload the tree, and each blossom, in its setting of green leaves, has all the delicacy of a pink tea rose, exquisite in form, in shading, and in fragrance.
Prairie Crab Apple picture